Quantock Brewery reaches new milestone

Just over a week ago, I received an email from a nice lady who runs the PR company, that looks after  Quantock Brewery. She wondered if I would be interested in running a story, on the blog, about the latest beer from Quantock, produced to celebrate the company’s 1500^th brew.

The new beer is a limited-edition beer, called Milestone 1500, and the brewery describe it as a Mountain IPA. That’s not a beer style I’ve come across before, or indeed heard of, but it’s said to blend West Coast bitterness with East Coast smoothness.

We’re talking about the United States here of course, but Milestone 1500 is inspired by Quantock Head Brewer and Co-Founder Rob Rainey’s recipe for the brewery’s 500^th brew. The original hop combination of Centennial, Citra, Columbus, Mosaic and Simcoe has been used with a different yeast strain to gives a fruitier complexity to the beer. Milestone 1500 is described as having a smooth mouthfeel, citrus, and pine flavours with notes of peach. It has an ABV of 6.5% .

That’s enough beer-geek stuff for the time being, as the most important part is what does the beer actually taste like? The original communication did say samples were available on request, so on the basis of if you don’t ask, you won’t get, I rather cheekily asked for some. This was in return for an honest write-up on the blog about the new beer specifically and Quantock in general, and to enhance the story, I also asked for a few photos.

I’d been aware of Quantock Brewery, for some time, primarily because their beers seem to feature quite regularly on Flavourly. Because of this connection I'd been tempted to order one of the latter’s mixed cases, but then Pippa’s email arrived out of the blue.

The beer arrived first, after being given the thumbs up by Quantock Brewery’s senior management. What’s more, there were nine x 440ml cans, all looking very striking and modern. The selection included Milestone 1500, plus lots more very appealing sounding beers, including QPA – Session Pale Ale 4.0%, Titanium West Coast IPA 5.1% and Lager Than Life dry-hopped, lager 4.6%. Also included in the case are several other beers, each show-casing a single hop variety.

I’m looking forward to cracking a few of these cans open, when time permits, but here’s my take on Milestone 1500, the beer the press release was all about. Fruity and smooth, with plenty of mouthfeel, alongside ample citrus and pine flavours, set against a background of really juicy malt. At 6.5% , the beer packs quite a punch, but is still a pleasant and refreshing drink.

With the launch of the new beer following in the aftermath of the pandemic, Cheryl Ford, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Quantock Brewery commented, “With everything the last 18 months has brought, it has felt at times like we’ve had mountains to climb, but like many other businesses we’ve tried to keep innovating to survive and focus on our customers. Investing in our onsite canning line last summer meant we’ve been able to keep the beer flowing, keep up with demand and keep on creating new beers. Thanks to everyone who continues to support us, and I feel incredibly blessed to be able to welcome you back to our Taproom. Here’s to the next 1500 brews!” (Cheryl is pictured below.)

In a bid to provide some background material for this article, I also carried out some research into Quantock. The brewery was set up in December 2007 in Wellington Somerset, by Rob Rainey, who is still head brewer. Rob’s philosophy was to brew beers of the highest quality, using the finest natural ingredients.

In June 2015, due to continuing demand, Quantock Brewery moved to a larger facility at Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, alongside the southern terminus of the West Somerset Railway. The new site allowed them to not only to produce more beer but to also open a brewery shop and taproom.  

In February 2017, Quantock Ales received a major cash investment that enabled the team and the new investors to continue brewing not only their well-respected range of traditional ales whilst at the same time pushing forward to create new and exciting beers. This coming together of new and old allowed Quantock’s new range of modern craft, hop-led style beers to sit alongside their long-established, traditional beers.

The brew house is an 8-barrel size with 8 fermenters allowing Quantock to produce 5 brews per week and over 2,300 pints per brew. Currently the brewery can produce over 160 casks or 11500 bottles per week. Recently the brew house has started producing kegged beer supplying over 40 key kegs a week.

Getting back to the beers I’ve been sent, if they are every bit as good as the Milestone 1500 I’ve just enjoyed, then I look forward to sampling to sampling the others. I’m also tempted to book a break in Somerset’s Quantock Hills, especially as it’s a part of England I don’t know particularly well. That way I can try a few of the brewery’s more traditional cask ales, whilst at the same time familiarising myself with a new and different part of the country.